• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

Swimming to nowhere.

num

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Awesome, Ski Diva! Now that you've figured out pacing, you'll be going longer and longer.
 

Shannon D

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Nice Work! I too have discovered that if I swim slowly, I can swim pretty far. I am super slow though, so I am planning to add sprint drills to my normal workouts. I swim about 1200 meters twice a week.

I saw that a couple of you do tris. I am training for my 1st in a couple of weeks. I just did my first open water swim and totally panicked. Any tips from the experts? I ended up breaststroking most of the way because I was freaked out about swimming with my face in the water.
 

Robyn

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Shannon, which tri are you doing? I know a lot of people doing Tri for the Cure in August and I'm doing The Tri Way at the end of this month. Oh, and another poster here is doing the Boulder Peaks tri in a couple of weeks, maybe that's the one you're doing?

I have no tips for you though 'cause I'm doing a duathlon for the first time in a few weeks as well. I think my motto for the swim will be just survive it.
 

Kimmyt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Shannon, first I would say that practice makes perfect! Or at least, practice makes less panicky. I had a rough time my first tri last year, even though I am a pretty strong swimmer. I just wasn't used to not being able to see in the water.

I did a few practices and it's gotten better, so I think putting the yards in the ow is just as, or more beneficial than your pool laps.

How is your sighting? In an ow swim I will try to establish a pattern to my sighting that fits in with my pattern for breathing. Establishing a pattern helps me focus on the pattern instead of my mind dwelling on the unknown that could lurk beneath me.

I breath every 3 strokes, so bilaterally. I am a stronger sighter on my right-side (I can sight on the left, but it tires me more...I'm working on this), so right before I would rotate my head to breath right, I lift my head slightly so that my eyes are just above the water. Depending on chop I may have to lift it higher, but I try to minimize this so I don't get overly exhausted. After I look up quickly, I breathe to my right.

Part of my problem in my first swim was not pacing myself, too. I went out too fast, and my heartrate went to hell and I couldn't control my breathing. Start slow. If it makes you feel better, start at the back of the pack. If you're prone to panic, I feel that starting slow and building speed as I grow more comfortable helps me calm down.

When I swim in ow now I like to focus on something that makes me happy and calm, like the pretty reflections of the light through the hazy/murky water. It has such a neat quality, that I can't help but getting hypnotized by it and all thoughts of heeby jeebys leave my head.

But don't worry about having to resort to another stroke to quell the panic, many people do that. As you get more used to swimming in the open water, you'll realize that it's all a head game.

Good luck! Oh, and it won't hurt if you add some drills into your regular 1200 swims, like swimming a lap with your eyes closed (under water) and sighting on the blocks at the end as you breath, doing some tarzan drills (head up above water), and getting some good friends all in one lane with you and swimming en masse to the other end to simulate the dishwasher effect.


Edited to say that my coach has us doing some weird drills that seemed kinda cool though, by putting a few layers of saran wrap over our goggles on the inside so that everything was fuzzy an unclear. That might help too.
K.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Today I swam a mile!!!!

:fireworks:

I've actually felt like I could do this for a while (ever since I adjusted my pacing :rolleyes:), but I just haven't wanted to take the time. I usually do half an hour of weights prior to swimming, so by the time I'd swim 3/4 of a mile, I just want to get outta there!

But today, I hung in there and did it! (Could it be I felt guilty for having ice cream last night????)

Yay me!!!!
 

Robyn

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Congratulations Wendy! Doesn't it feel fabulous when you break one of those perceived limits and you realize it was self-imposed?

Now, it's National Ice Cream Day today and I think you've earned another scoop! :D
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
My husband says I can now qualify for the Mile Swim Boy Scout Merit Badge! Pretty cool!

Mileswim.jpg
 

Robyn

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
While not a mile I am proud to say that I swam 1200 yards today! This coming from someone who hadn't swam a lap in 2 years until 17 days ago. :D I probably could have gone a full 3/4 of a mile but I was slow and there was a poor guy waiting to get a spot in a lane with a very full pool and only 35 minutes left until it closed. It was great practice though as I had 3 girls from a swim team in the lane next to me practicing the butterfly which created lots of waves. I'm sure that will help me on Sunday.
 

Consuela

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Congrats the mile and the 1200 yards! Both amazing to me!

The closest I've been to this the past year is when I walked across the hot tub to get to the stairs! hehe
 

Robyn

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Well, I did 3/4 of a mile tonight! I'm super excited although my shoulders are already sore which doesn't bode well for tomorrow. Oh well, I riding on the high! :D
 

Kimmyt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Bumping this b/c I just started Masters class again. It's funny (and by funny I mean SAD) that only 3 months off and all of a sudden 150 yards feels like long distance. Seriously? A month ago I swam a mile and at the beginning of June a 3000yd workout felt normal.

Sheesh.
 

Robyn

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Bumping this b/c I just started Masters class again. It's funny (and by funny I mean SAD) that only 3 months off and all of a sudden 150 yards feels like long distance. Seriously? A month ago I swam a mile and at the beginning of June a 3000yd workout felt normal.

Sheesh.

Well I got to do combat swimming last night sharing my lane with 3 other people. It's not normally that crowded so I'm not quite sure what was going on. I gave up after swimming for about 30 minutes.
 

snowsparkle2

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Oh I am sad, the outdoor pool i go to closed for the winter season last night. :( From now on I have to drive twice as far and go to the indoor lane pool where there can be up to 8 people per lane easy - Robyn, i envy you your 3 per lane !!

However, i suppose this does mean that snow must soon be on the way - yahoo / hurrah !:yahoo:
 

Swamp Dog

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
how have I not seen this thread before? Or was I purposely avoiding it because I have not been swimming at all?
Wendy, you can find a sprint Tri and walk the run portion you know ;)
 

Robyn

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Oh I am sad, the outdoor pool i go to closed for the winter season last night. :( From now on I have to drive twice as far and go to the indoor lane pool where there can be up to 8 people per lane easy - Robyn, i envy you your 3 per lane !!

However, i suppose this does mean that snow must soon be on the way - yahoo / hurrah !:yahoo:

Well it was 4 but 8? Yeah, I wouldn't last. I'm slow as it is and try to be courteous and let the faster ones by me at the ends of the lanes. With 8 I'd be frustrated.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Wow, I'm usually alone in my pool! Once in a great while someone else shows up, but I'd say 8 out of 10 times, I'm completely by myself.
 

oragejuice

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I love swimming. I competed for 6 years. Used to do doubles, wow. I've been getting back into the pool lately, and it REALLY sucks, to think that I used to be able to swim a mile and not even think about it.

Glad to see you are getting into it, SkiDiva, its absolutely amazing exercise.

I've gained about 30lbs since I quit swimming all the time, and the doctor said that if I want to get back into shape, swimming is really the only thing that will do it, because it's what my body knew for so long. Blah.
 

Kimmyt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
3 people per lane sounds like a dream! 8 sounds excessive, but since Masters just started it's always crowded. Last night we had 4, it was ok. Everyone's well behaved.

Do you circle swim or split lanes? I find it easier to just circle swim and then if a person needs to pass they just wait until a good time (or if I'm at a wall and someone is on my toes I'll just let them pass me quickly at the turn).
 

itri

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Ugh, I hate sharing lanes. I would probably turn around and walk out if I had to share with that many people! :p The only time I've ever had to circle swim was my first sprint tri this season that was a pool swim. Although I did have a woman ask me if I wanted to circle swim when she asked to share my lane last month. :confused: Um, there's only two of us, I think we can just each swim on one side...

Kimmyt, I'm jealous that you're doing masters. I've been wanting to do it, but the time it's offered at my Y is just not a good time for me schedule-wise. Plus, I'm kind of a wuss and since I'm fairly new to swimming, I'm afraid they'd throw me out because I wouldn't be good enough. Or that I'd just get swum (swam?) over! :bag:
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
26,235
Messages
497,602
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top